Agenda and minutes

Venue: Pugin & Rossetti Rooms, First Floor, Council Offices, Cecil Street, Margate. View directions

Contact: Charles Hungwe 

Items
No. Item

330.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillor Binks, substituted by M. Saunders.

331.

Declarations of Interest

'To receive any declarations of interest.  Members are advised to consider the advice contained within the Declaration of Interest Form attached at the back of this Agenda.  If a Member declares an interest, they should complete that form and hand it to the Officer clerking the meeting and then take the prescribed course of action.'

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

332.

Auditor's Report pdf icon PDF 100 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Mr Andy Mack, Audit Director (Grant Thornton, LLP) introduced the report. He provided information regarding the back ground to and the process used for producing the audit report. Mr Mack said that local electors had raised objection on three maters which were: (1) that deferral of debt was unlawful (state aid); (2) that proper accounting had not been followed (3) that the Council had failed to achieve value for money arguing the fact that the Transeuropa debt could be classified as state aid. The objectors were of the view that the deferment of the debt was unlawful. Mr Mack said objections were treated as a serious matter which required a quasi-judicial role for Grant Thornton to adjudicate and hence make a determination over the objections. The process involved meeting the objectors and formally recording their statements, the Council representatives and analysing relevant documentation.

 

Mr Mack reported that a provisional view by Grant Thornton was produced in December 2013 and shared with the Council and objectors. Additional views were then received and a final view was produced which was now before the Committee. As far as Mr Mack was aware, no representations had been made to court before the 28 day period of appeal had passed. The first objection on the Transeuropa issue was rejected. It was the view of the External Audit that the debt payment arrangement was a normal practice. Mr Mack reported that Grant Thornton had rejected the three heads of objection raised by the local electors and would not be issuing a report in the public interest. However Grant Thornton did have recommendations for the Council which they had included within the covering

 

Mr Mack said that the audit report offered recommendations, one of which was handling confidential information. He also said that some Councillors had told the audit team that they had not been aware of the discussions between Council and Transeuropa. Mr Mack advised that good governance required trust and sharing of information, including information on delicate matters.This also required Members to respect the confidentiality of information.

 

The Chairman then invited Members to comment on the report. Some Members requested for the view of the auditors regarding the payment arrangements of the Transeuropa debt; whether it was a key decision or non-key. They said that the report appeared to show that Grant Thornton was of the view that this was a key decision. Members wanted to know what test was applied. Grant Thornton’s view is that the deferral was a key decision. However Mr Mack acknowledged that the legislation was complex and allowed scope for interpretation. He understood that the Council had come to a different view and did not consider that this was material to the objection.

 

The Corporate & Regulatory Services Manager, Mr Harvey Patterson said that the Member who raised objections with the auditor was at the time the Chairman of the Overview & Scrutiny Panel. It meant that if the decision to reschedule the Transeuropa debt was a key decision;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 332.